The Methodists in Mumuye land

Kwajji UMC Church History

United Methodist Church Nigeria
Yorro central district, Southern conference

KWAJJI CHARGE
Yorro LGA, Taraba State.

CHURCH HISTORY

OCTOBER 2016

By Haruna Yakubu Tolenyashong
.
PREFACE
On Sunday June 26th 2016, I was appointed and sworn in as chairman, committee on church history of Kwajji charge, Pupule.
I was commissioned to produce a history of the church in Kwajji as a basis for the compilation of a general documentary for the district and ultimately the entire United Methodist Church Nigeria –UMCN – Southern conference of Nigeria.
The following notes are compiled therefore as a record of what transpired within a period about 100 years since the arrival of Christianity into Mumuye land and particularly Kwajji area spreading the gospel of our lord Jesus Christ in this part of Nigeria.
My regards go to all my brethren in the fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ, members of the History Committee, and the entire charge leadership, who contributed to the success of this work.
Reverend James B. Vocks, D.S. outgoing who initiated it and Rev. John Ezekiel Lantoya the District Superintendent of Yorro Central and Pastor in Charge Kwajji Charge, who commissioned and gave energy to this project.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION – KWAJJI CHARGE
CHRISTIANITY ENTERS MUMUYELAND 1916-40  
KWAJJI - EARLY CONVERSIONS TO S.U.M. – 1941-49
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 1949-63
CONFRONTATIONS – CHURCH AND CULT
RELOCATION OF CHURCH TO PUPULE – 1963-64
KWAJJI UNDER S.U.M. CHARGE ZING – 1964-66
KWAJJI UNDER S.U.M. CHARGE DANDIKULU – 1966-75
KWAJJI PROMOTION TO CHARGE - S.U.M./E.K.A.N. MURI – 1975-84
KWAJJI CHARGE  WITH THE NEW U.M.C.N. CHURCH – 1984-88
CRISIS AND SCHIZM IN UMCN KWAJJI – 1984-87
KWAJJI CHARGE PROMOTION TO YORO CENTRAL DISTRICT -1988-91
BENEFITS OF S.U.M./U.M.C.N. ENTRY INTO MUMUYELAND
LESSONS FOR UMCN CHURCH TODAY
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY

I
INTRODUCTION – KWAJJI CHARGE
This writing is a undertaking of the United Methodist church in Nigeria (UMCN) Kwajji charge aimed at settling down in permanent record the historical developments of the church in its various forms and from its inception up to the present status it manifests today.
As a beginning, there are three things that this chapter introduces:-
The term Kwajji.
The Entity referred to as UMCN
Kwajji Charge
Kwajji is the name of one of the major clans of the Mumuye ethnic group found in the north-eastern part of Nigeria, particularly in Adamawa and Taraba states. The name Kwajji also refers to an administrative District of the government with its headquarters at Pupule under Yorro local government area of Taraba state. The name Kwajji as well refers to the Third class Chiefdom that is a traditional and cultural area recognized and established by government with its headquarters at Pupule.
The chiefdom unites three clans of the Mumuye people i.e. Manang, Mika and Kwajji. The areas that these people occupy form 3 separate councilor wards of the 11 in Yorro LGA administration.
By extension, the area covered by what is known today as UMCN – Kwajji charge comprises only the Kwajji and Mika ethnic clan areas i.e the Pupule ‘A’ and ‘B” councilor wards of Yorro LGA.
THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN NIGERIA (UMCN):- is a branch of the United Methodist church worldwide. UMCN Nigeria is one of the largest country branches in the world with other UMC churches found in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americans. It is one of the largest protestant churches in the USA. The church came to this land by means of developments and evolution from earlier churches like the Sudan United Mission, E.U.B.,TEKAS, EKAS, EKAN, TEKAN and UMCN. This has spanned the period of almost a century till today.
The UMCN church in Nigeria is divided into three 3 Annual Conferences as the larger Units. Lower units called Districts make up the conferences, while the Charges are the smaller unit areas that form the Districts.
KWAJJI Charge:- in terms of area Kwajji charge covers an area of approximately 40km sq and is located on the Jalingo – Zing main highway. Its main church is in Pupule some 12km to Zing.
Kwajji Charge has:-
Total members              -1438
Total baptized 2016      -282
Budget 2017                    -N5.3m

Villages of Kwajji charge today
Pupule
Panyala
Mika Sohongari
Dampang
Layankoro
Kwaleyang
Labanko
Korondola
Bolimika

II
CHRISTIANITY ENTERS MUMUYELAND 1916-40
Christianity is known to have come into Nigeria in the wake of British colonial Conquest of the country over a century ago. It came in from the south spreading northwards. Specifically the introduction of the religion started at the beginning of the 20th century in Mumuye land, under the influence of a German Christian Missionary known as Dr. Karl Kumm. Kumm and his associates purposely brought Christianity to the area of the Mumuye people as a branch of an international protestant Christian church, known as Methodist.
It started with the formation of a protestant church in Europe known as the Sudan United Mission in 1904 whose sole aim it was, to bring Christianity to the vast Pagan tribes of the North Eastern region of Nigeria that was known to have been untouched by Muslim Jihad.
A contemporary of Kumm called C.W Gunter first attempted to enter Mumuye land in 1916 but was prevented by the Colonial District officer as the land was officially a “CLOSED TERRITOTY” that was unconquered and hostile to all foreigners.
In 1920 Guinter one of the Missionaries made another attempt albeit briefly and raised the first church in Pantisawa. It was closed down by the colonial authorities because of an uprising in the area by the Mumuye people.
Guinter under the recommendation of the D.O Mr. Fremantle reluctantly turned away his attention and went to create a missionary station in Bambur in 1923 which survived up to later years. Guinter’s associates who by now were stationed in Kona near Jalingo from 1916 – 1918 0n wards continued their efforts to deliver God’s words to the Mumuye people. As a result, one of the missionaries Mr. Axel Olsen and his wife succeeded in establishing a permanent Missionary station in Zing in 1932.
It was from their bases in Zing, Kona and later Lankaviri that the Gospel started creeping into the land occupied by the Kwajji people. Inevitably the gospel came to Kwajji because Kwajji Village settlement was situated on the main highway between Jalingo and Yola through Zing that was already opened and frequented by officials of the colonial Government and other agencies. Before the time of the establishment of the S.U.M church in Zing, a man known as Sambo of the Kpana/Kodele clan was the District head of Zing District appointed by the British. Kwajji area was for a period of time placed under his jurisdiction for the purpose of tax collection. Naturally then the Missionaries stationed in Zing and Lankaviri had ample access to Kwajji either ordinarily as a village on the highway or as a place under the influence of Zing chieftaincy.
The conversion of these Pagan people known as the Mumuye who were variously described as “Wild, Fearless, and Virile, active and primitive” proved to be a slow bargain for missionaries under that period of British colonial occupation of their land.

III
KWAJJI - EARLY CONVERSIONS TO S.U.M. – 1941-49
In the last chapter mention was made of the fact that missionaries had established stations in Zing (1932) and Lankaviri in (1940). These churches were opened by the E.U.B (S.U.M) British branch. As they scuttled between Lankaviri and Zing naturally they stopped by and preached the gospel to the Mumuye people they came into contact on the road in between such as Kwajji. More so at that time there was a small forte or rest house (Bariki) in Kwajji village where British officials and soldiers would use as a transit point built along the road. Missionaries used that too, since they were given permission to preach by government. Between this period of time therefore (1932 – 1940) Kwajji started getting its first converts to Christianity. There were a handful of them though no church was made at the time and congregation came only casually when missionaries passed by.
Notable among these people were Mading Goro of Punya clan, Mille (Dossa) Mantewon (Danvo) etc. By the middle of 1940’s the British missionaries had to leave and go back to England to participate in World War II efforts against Germany. They handed their mission stations by agreement to the S.U.M/E.U.B (America) based in Bambur. At first there was said to be neglect and a station was not opened in Kwajji as agreed until much later when Dr. A.J Faust was posted to take over Zing/Lankaviri in 1949. Faust opened the first church in Kwajji village in 1949.
The church was made of “Zana” mat and grass materials and prayers were conducted there on Sundays.
The opening of this new church came with a wave of new converts notably Yakubu Tolenyashong, Ayuba Name, Bagau Noviri, Barnabas Beko, Kanu Sholoba, Voro Dinbase, Santi Banya, Makong Agbaro, Voro Wapi etc. Some of the earlier mentioned converts before Faust came had since backslidden to the Juju cult due to lack of an evangelist to study with  and guide them.
The new converts were allocated the church area opposite the forte and overlooked as well the main Juju festival and burial ground known as Beng Beleng. These people were having a man from Jen called Filibus Umaru as their evangelist who helped opened the church. Faust with Missionaries such as Karl Kuglin, E. Wesley, Walter Erbele etc that worked between Lankaviri, Zing and later Kassa stopped over at Kwajji to encourage the converts reading and writing the Hausa language which was their medium of communication.
IV
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH IN KWAJJI 1949-63
During the decade of the 1950’s, the protestant church was maintained in Kwajji by a dozen of members and their families. To guide and encourage their togetherness, they resolved to build their houses in a small group in one part of the village known as Anguwan Mission. It should be noted that at that time there was also a small group of Hausa/Moslem traders that settled on another part of the village known as anguwan Hausawa.
Another notable thing with the Christian converts was that they resolved to stop drinking and brewing the local alcohol called Burkutu. They drank only the none alcoholic “Kunu” with which they organized and rotated group labour on each other’s farms’
They avoided anything to do with Juju cult. They also worked to convince other friends and family members to attend church. The first convert to be baptized from Kwajji was Yakubu Tolenyashong in 1957 by rev Karl Kuglin at Zing. A young man among the founding members of Kwajji church Barnabas Beko also was baptized later in 1958. He was sent on medical course at Bambur after that. 
The name Ekklisiyar Kristi a Sudan (EKAS) Muri was adopted in 1954 to identify the area of Muri collectively across the Benue river. This name is a Hausa translation of Sudan United Mission (S.U.M) which the missionaries in Northern Nigeria used collectively since its inception in 1904.
The significance of the conversion and baptism of these converts has a special impact in the outcome of Christianity and status of the Vah Juju cult in Kwajji area as a whole. The man Yakubu Tolenyashong who was leading the converts was by then in his middle ages. He was before his conversion, a very well known figure in the Juju cult. He was a poet and could play all traditional instruments and sing well. He was slated to head four different cults which included the highest one. His energy and abilities was a great inspiration to others both young and old, in Juju followership. More so he was married to the District head of Kwajji Kpanti Sholoba’s last daughter Tinya(Sheba).
All of a sudden Yakubu Tolenyashong made a U-turn and joined Christianity leaving Juju cult at the time when they best needed him. He also took along princes like Nameh, Kanu, and Voro from the household of the chief and the other members who were prominent in their various clans. E.g. Bagau from Punya, Beko from Dokpon, Makong Agbaro etc.
Removing this crop of young people from cultism encouraged others to start coming to the Christians on Sundays from other clans in the village. A lot of people were showing interest in the new religion of the Whiteman “Bature” who brought church members drugs and books as well as other interesting items of clothing etc.
The trend of conversion became alarming to Juju elders who reacted by using various methods to stop others from joining. The cult people organized negative propaganda calling the Christian converts cowards who were afraid of cultism. That any one who abandoned Juju would face calamities in one way or the other in their life. And since they no longer obeyed Juju, it could never protect their farms and health to ward off witch craft etc.
These propaganda and hostility did not deter the converts and they kept together with a few more joining. Since these church people lived among the other pagans in the village sharing facilities like water wells, markets etc friction was inevitable. This friction through the decade of the 1950’s none the less saw others like William Jakavoro,  Bitah from Bolong clan etc joining the church.
V
CONFRONTATIONS – CHURCH AND CULT
In 1937 when Kwajji District was created with Kwajji village as its headquarters, it was eminent that the change in behavior brought by British colonialism was bound to come closer to the people of Kwajji.
Another development among others that introduced social charge in the area was that government opened a primary school in Kwajji in 1938. This school was operated by a teacher called Sani Kona. The school vehemently faced resistance from the local people with parents preventing their children from getting enrolled. Only a handful was gotten which included princes Nameh and Kanu mentioned earlier. When the school had to be closed down in 1940 due to poor attendance, many a number of individuals had been exposed to civilization which encouraged them to join Christianity later.
Resistance to this civilizing factor like Christianity therefore did not came by accident in later years. As mentioned in the school case above, the Christian group unlike the school had come to stay. The frictions led to ideological confrontation and unavoidably incidences of violent nature occurred between the Christians and cultists.
One of the incidences came like this in 1951. On one fateful day Mr. Karl Kuglin a white missionary stopped by to say prayers with the church members. The congregation had women and children family members among.  On the opposite side of the highway there as well was a burial ritual going on. The Juju people at the burial ground were visible to the church members as they came out of their church to see off the missionary.
This did not go down well with the Juju people as women and children must not be visible during rituals. The cultists accused the Christians of deliberately abusing and denigrating their believers. They took the case to the chief of Kwajji Bello Toga but the case had to be dismissed because they directly pointed Yakubu as instigating his group. Incidentally witnesses testified he was not among the prayer group that day as he was away greeting the bereaved family.
To retaliate for this incidence after their case failed, the Juju people sent men out and the new church was burnt down in the night.
Another such incidence occurred a year or two later as the Christians were celebrating Christmas. This time it was a verbal confrontation between a church member and a Juju follower. They traded insults about each other’s religion which was reported to the Juju elders. They did not take kindly to the insults from the convert and retaliated by sending arsonists to again burn down the S.U.M church in Kwajji for the second time.
Meanwhile pagans harassed the Christians at every opportunity. They sent animals deliberately into the converts’ farms and destroyed their crops. Juju masquerades chased Christian women and children from water holes outside the village. They even declared that anyone harming the Christians was doing well to the cult of Juju; most especially as Yakubu Tolenyashong was identified as the king pin, every man was encouraged to ultimately kill him if the opportunity arose. The Christians strongly believed that these acts of arson and harassment had the nod or complicity of the chief Toga who was a strong cultist and an age grade of Yakubu.
By the year 1954 a new palace was built at Pupule and the headquarters of the District was transferred there. The departure of this arm of government from Kwajji village left the two antagonists an their own sort of. Hostilities became rampart and each one stood his ground, Christ against Juju cult.
It was in this situation that the Roman Catholic sect of the Christian religion started tricking into Kwajji area. Mumuyeland was completely opened by the colonial administration in 1954. That meant that all was now safe and missionaries could go anywhere they wished in Mumuye land to preach.
The Catholics on arrival at their new station in Yakoko which opened in 1955, started exploring places they could draw converts from. They also came to Kwajji, being a populated settlement on the highway. Their ideology was different from that of the protestant S.U.M church as that in Kwajji. And on arrival there they noticed that there was so much bad blood between the S.U.M church and the pagans.
The Catholics therefore, as everywhere in Mumuye land in a new approach changed tactics. The Catholics identified them selves as a little different from Protestants and “friendlier” with the cult people. The confrontational separateness of the Protestants was avoided.
Catholics would allow initial converts to observe some Juju rituals, continue drinking Burkutu, go to farm after church on Sundays and did not require living in separate quarters in the village. They also accepted men with polygamy to convert and keep their wives.
When the Catholics finally established a school and church in Kwajji in 1958, the tide of Christianity that protestant S.U.M church opened, later turned to the advantage of the Catholics.
The Juju people though still hostile to the new words of God either protestant or Catholic, preferred the later. So while Catholic membership was rapidly increasing which the school and church brought about, on the other hand S.U.M church membership remained stagnant. Converts that would have joined the S.U.M, now found it easier to join the Catholics as this did not mean any drastic change in their lifestyle except of going to church on Sundays. In light of this some the diehard Juju elders now explored sending their children to the Catholic school. It should be noted that these kids still nurtured the hostility of their elders against S.U.M.
With all these frustrations in place, the S.U.M church members made a decision to remove themselves from that spider web. They decided that members and the church should relocate themselves to Pupule near the seat of government, away from the hostile environment of those years in Kwajji village.
VI
RELOCATION OF CHURCH TO PUPULE – 1963-64
The Christian members in Kwajji village having resolved to relocate to Pupule took immediate action. They started building homes in Pupule in 1963 and by 1964 all had relocated to Pupule. They settled in the area of town directly opposite the chief’s Palace by the main highway to Zing and Yola. They raised a wood and mat shed under which they worshiped.
When these early Christians arrived Pupule, they were a group of faith driven people. They had no permanent evangelist leading them. They were a vulnerable lot that were exposed to all hostilities like chicks that had been weaned and left on their by their shepherd or mother hen.
They left the relentless opposition of Juju in Kwajji village, but on coming to the purported calm of Pupule new challenges started showing up.
The challenges centered on the chief’s palace which in those years was synonymous to the British inheritance - indirect rule - of the Emirate of Muri. Pupule founded as a District capital attracted Hausa/Fulani merchants whose population was substantial as compared to any other area of Kwajji land either proper or wider.
Pupule being an area of sizeable contact with Islamic faith saw the corrosion of the S.U.M church membership. Some prominent members of the church were cajoled and enticed with govt. jobs with the palace or other related agencies if they could just abandon this Whiteman’s religion and become Muslim.
In light of this the church lost members such as Bagau, Who Islamized and was made the palace messenger. Voro Dinbase a prince also Islamized and became a native police ‘Dandoka’ etc.
All these tribulations did not deter the core group of elders like Yakubu Tolenyashong, Ayuba Name and Barnabas Beko. In deed the group still received new members as people like Ode Ladan from Didonko Kwajji joined the congregation and also transferred to Pupule in 1964. Others that later joined them were Nyakinti and his son Irimiya Sangara. All the prominent men mentioned had strong courageous wives behind that supported their husbands in all the trials they underwent. To mention are Sheba Yakubu, Martina Ayuba, Hamsatu Barnabas, Deborah Ode, and a host of others. These women in later years became literate and all helped in spreading adult education among new converts too.
The church struggled on without adequate official leadership through the 1960’s. Indeed between 1968 and 1969, the members did not congregate due to bickering and squabbles in between themselves. However they still held themselves to the faith and observed Christian rites each with his family.
One group would come and pray with their families in church while the others kept away. Then another group would come in after the other had dispersed. At one point services all stopped with no one attending church. But the church stood. It stood because the church retreated into the hearts of the individual members and never left them in the face of individual differences. In fact a member or two just casually ventured attending Mass with the Roman Catholics not as members but as later confirmed wanted to be with the gospel of Jesus Christ and would never go back to the “darkness” of Juju religion.
Meanwhile the Catholics now left alone in Kwajji, also faced problems with the people of the area so that school enrolment and convert suddenly waned. Juju masquerades constantly harassed school children on their way to and from school. Many of these kids trekked a total of six miles daily from Pupule to attend school at Kwajji. The Catholics now faced with this bottlenecks, transferred their school and church also to Pupule, borrowing a leaf from S.U.M. thinking.
Reconciliation in the SUM church came with the posting of a civil servant in form an Education instructor to Pupule.
This man, Yakubu Yerima Zambuk who was an indigene of then Bauchi province, happened to be an S.U.M member from his area. He brought the wandering members back into the flock and reorganized the church. They managed to revert to praying together though he was not officially the church’s evangelist.
From then on the church regrouped and waxed on into the decade of the 1970’s.
VII
KWAJJI UNDER S.U.M. CHARGE ZING – 1964-66
When the church in Kwajji was founded, it was under the influence and supervision of the mission station in Zing. The missionaries alternated their visits when convenient with each other from Zing and Lankaviri station had been designated as “charge” under which Kwajji was a station. At this tune as well, the gospel had reached other neighboring area like Manang Kopo 1950, Dandikulu in 19454 all those in the Manang clan areas of the district of Kwajji.
Apart from all the threats existential to Kwajji church members that informed their transfer to Pupule, the other main reasons were that they wanted to move closer to their brethren in Manang area as well as the charge headquarters in Zing. It was more convenient for them to attend congregation with them from time to time.
Since there was also a mission dispensary in Zing opened in 1957 and a mission primary there since 1949 these served as facilities they could enjoy with their families which in later year became a great benefit for them socially.
The SUM church members around enjoyed the medical facilities at relatively cheap costs and at times free if you could just show your update membership card. Their wives enjoyed maternity care and their children were immunized with the latest vaccines from Europe and America. The quality of Education of their children had no comparison around and they went to higher schools near, far and wide.
In the early years of the decade of 1960’s, about the time Zing became a charge and the church in Pupule was having some difficulty in finding an evangelist to cater for them, it came to pass that this problem was not only here. Indeed the mission manpower to evangelize in Mumuye land was barely to be found. In the wider church history of that era it was written that the whole area south of the Benue River was facing relative neglect. That since the arrival of Faust in Zing, the area did not benefit from any meaningful progress for members here as compared to that found in the areas north of the Benue river like Jen, Bambur etc.
Appointment to offices and Educational training of church leaders did favour only the Bambur, Jen areas lopsidedly. This culminated in a declaration from Zing in 1966 that it (East Muri District founded 1964) would break away from the Muri church EKAS created in 1954.
VIII
KWAJJI UNDER S.U.M. CHARGE DANDIKULU – 1966-75
During the reorganizations to mitigate these problems of maladministration, Dean Gilliland the Missionary in charge among others decided to bring the church closer to Mumuye land by transferring the headquarters from Bambur to Jalingo.
In the exercise Dandikulu became a new charge in 1966 to which Kwajji and the Manang areas were now grouped. It was under the charge in Dandikulu that a good number of church pioneer members were Baptized, such as Ayuba Name, Ode Ladan and the author Haruna Yakubu, Rev. Liatu J. Kane in 1971. When the gospel spread on in to the late 60’s; It was a thing of God’s glory that his words still spread in face of the challenges bedeviling the wider church of S.U.M known in Hausa as EKAS (Eklisiya Kristi a Sudan).
After the crisis of the 1960s was put down, another big one came in the early 1970’s.
Under the indigenous chairmanship of Pastor Ezra Barawani and Barau Banti Nyako as secretary of EKAS Muri; the East Muri District with headquarters at Zing again wrote to the church of Muri that they had broken away from the main church because of continued misrule of the greater church. There was they pointed out, wide spread corruption, nepotism, tribalism in the high church administration. That the chairman pastor Ezra became dictatorial and was scheming to remain in power for 9 years or forever against the church electoral rules and mandate.
The group of dissidents was led by Rev. Luka Zanya Zing and Mr. Peter Marubitoba Dong. Both groups maneuvered for recognition, going around the local churches to put across their cases. Kwajji church and indeed Dandikulu charge threw in their lot with the opposition led by Luka Zanya and Marubitoba. The Barawani/Banti faction was accused of instigating violence, seizing church properties in some places that refused to cooperate with them. The crisis went on for several years during which efforts were being held at higher levels to mediate. At that time a song was even composed by the women fellowship lampooning the Barawani/Banti faction about all the evils they brought to the SUM church. The factions took on a some what ethic dimension when things came to a head. By 1974 the church was divided into the Jenjo/Yandang behind the Barawani/Banti group, while the rest of the ethnic groups such as Mumuye, Munga, Wurkum and many others threw in their weight with the opposition.
Not withstanding, evangelism and gospel went to new places in the Dandikulu charge. Boli Sabo village received Christ in 1968, Danzang, Mika in 1973. Gada Lasheke, Nsoreng, Bakinya, Dila, Boboto Bamga, Kajong, Boli Mika, etc all received the word of God within that period.
The spread of the gospel in the SUM church in Mumuye land was now relatively rapid such that there was need to reorganize the charges to create new ones that would go with the population rise. In these reorganizations, Kwajji charge was created in 1975 from Dandikulu charge. The year also saw the change of name from EKAS – MURI to EKAN  MURI.
This was a significant turning point in administration from white missionaries to indigene church leadership or ownership.
IX
KWAJJI PROMOTION TO CHARGE - S.U.M./E.K.A.N. MURI – 1975-84
Kwajji charge was created in 1975 with its headquarters at the church in Pupule. It covered half of the area of the Manang people such s Lakware, Boli, Mamang, Dogopi, Dogang and Yuzeti. Together with all the Mika people such as Panyala, Boli Mika, Mika Tsohongari, Layankorong, Jatsori, Danpang and Danmagam. The charge extended across the Kunini river from among the Pugong people Danzang, Bakinya, Dila, Boboto, Kajon, Soreng, Gada Lasheke. There as well were at Bamga, Budong, Sah Bukaru etc. behind hills in present Lau LGA.
The Decade of the 1960’s was a period of the rapid expansion of the SUM church in Mumuye land. The foreign missionaries were very much around encouraging the indigenous leadership and intervening patiently now and then when things went astray.
They operated other programs apart of evangelism such as school education, adult education, Bible translation into Mumuye language, Agricultural propagation, pharmacy and immunization, community health. All of these did well to attract faith in the gospel of Christ.
Local folks that acquired literacy in adult education programs came forward to serve as evangelists that readily went out to newly opened areas and probe for new converts. The old core members were joined by enthusiastic young and upcoming individuals. Names of volunteers were being counted like Linus Kwashombo M/Koppo, Jonah Tobivo M/Kopo, Barnabas Beko, Ode Ladan, Yakubu and his nephew Irimiya Nyakinti Kwajji, Zachariah Kudana Gada, Yakubu Lonpon Gada, Markus Shinga Danzang, Markus Mashi Mika, Inusa Sameka Mika, Jonah Jakpen and so many others.
The first Mumuye man to be ordained pastor of the SUM church was Late Pastor Simon Jatutu Zing in 1964. None other was ordained until 1975 when late Samaila Ali Zing joined his brethren. In 1978 the first person to be ordained priest under Kwajji charge was late Pastor Linus Kwashombo Manang Koppo who got his collar along with two other Mumuye brethren late Rev. Luka Zanya Zing and Denis Gilenya also of Zing. Another ordination in Kwajji came in i981 when Yakubu Bukaru Bamga became a priest along with 19 others from elsewhere which included Rev. Jolly Nyame Zing.
Other priests ordained under Kwajji charge when gospel boomed include Rev. Jonah Ntobivoh Manang Koppo.
X
KWAJJI CHARGE  WITH THE NEW U.M.C.N. CHURCH – 1984-88
The protestant Christian missionaries that brought the religion to the Muri and Mumuye land area in 1916 came from a sect called Methodist in Europe and America. The Methodists were a group led by brothers John and Charles Wesley which broke away from the church of England (Anglican Church) a century before. This group had elements that evangelized in various counties of Europe and America.
Kumm and his contemporaries like Guinter, Mc bride, Cook, Olsen, Bronum etc came from their various European branches.
When the Methodist sects groups came to Nigeria’s Northern provinces of Muri, Bauchi, Benue, Plateau, and Adamawa they grouped and operated under one name the Sudan United Mission –S.U.M.(In Hausa TEKAS).
In 1968 those groups of America and Europe came together and adopted the name United Methodist church. It was expected that the name would also be adopted by the SUM in Nigeria and Muri.
However due to persistent crisis in the church in the early and mid 1970’s this was not possible.
In 1979 finally the SUM church leadership group that was dominant met at Lankaviri and formally declared its transformation from EKAN (SUM) Muri to the United Methodist church in Nigeria (UMCN). The church worked to establish link and membership with the UMC world Methodist council (WMC) with headquarters at Geneva Switzerland.
After a period of autonomy UMCN chose to come into full WMC membership under the Sierra Leone Liberia west Africa central conference. Kwajji charge in the years of transformation went along with the other churches in the East Muri District – Zing (SUM) to be part of the UMCN.
The crisis of Pastor Ezra and his group were suddenly abandoned and left with the EKAN church or what remained of it.
Kwajji charge in the new UMCN went along with all the reforms that the new church entailed. Pastor Linus K. and his anointed brethren from Kwajji charge were all part of the new UMCN leadership in one capacity or the other. God’s work continued at the pace of the 70’s.
The new stations in Manang, Mika, Pungong, Kwajji and Banga areas were being expanded and consolidated.
The church introduced more vigorous programmes of clergy training, Adult Education Bible translation, health, Agric and technical training for members. This served as a good conduit for social advancement and raising standard of living.
The church had come closer to Mumuye land and was now even at its center. Lankaviri became the new Mission headquarters while Zing had many programs headquarter there.
New people were being trained and joining the clergy to spread and consolidate the gospel more in this area.
XI
CRISIS AND SCHIZM IN UMCN KWAJJI – 1984-87
The UMCN church was in full swing in the area of Kwajji charge. All its appendages were functioning as normal. The crisis of the EKAN and pastor Ezra was a thing of the past and things looked good in all aspects and expectations.
Church members were looking prosperity in the eye. The membership was enthusiastic. Donations were generous and a new zinc roofed church was built at Pupule to accommodate the congregations. Church property grew and efforts were still being continued to expand the church buildings and pastor’s residence and offices. Members gave out cheerfully.
However in the midst of abundance, corruption and vices that go with leadership of any nature began to creep in. it became evident that church property was being misused. There was widespread misappropriation and church projects began to suffer stagnation.
A new pastor Yohanna Donso was posted to take charge of the church in 1984. When he arrived he noticed the anomaly. He questioned the church elders who didn’t give him convincing answers. With that he now did a comprehensive audit of all the charges property. The result showed that most of the officials had personalized or had church money and property boundless of zinc, grains etc in their hands. There they claimed were either on loan or had been allocated to them.
The church administration requested that they should return these assets to the church. This matter dragged on in low profile within the church.
In the ensuing time by 1987, under the charge of Pastor Dennis Gilenya another problem started rearing its ugly head. Some prominent members the charge’s church elders voiced out some grievances with the UMCN District. The grievances as they claimed centered on some in-equality being meted out against the Kwajji charge as compared to other charges like Dandikulu and others in Zing area. They simply put it that there was bias against Kwajji people. They accused the higher church elders of deliberately suppressing the progress of those of this charge while favoring others from Manang and Zing.
Prominent in this agitation were names like Inusa Sameka, Ode Ladan, Obidah Dokada, and a handful of others. Assurances were given that these grievances could be considered. The agitators gave little time and space to these assurances however and continued to escalate the matter. But then it was noticed that these agitators with their innocent looking issues against authorities of UMCN, were principally those involved in the church audit scandal that were being asked to bring back church assets they had embezzled. Not withstanding, the matter went to a head for which the general superintendent of the UMCN Rev. Peter Dabale had to intervene.
He came down from the mission headquarter at Lankaviri to reason and even plead with the dissenting members. Indeed witnesses testified that he went down on his knees before these rebelling members in the presence of other senior church elders like Rev. Luka Zanya and Marubitoba.  After they left things got worse. The dissidents declared that they had now pulled out of the UMCN organization entirely and had converted the church to the CRCN sect.
They group had earlier on made up their mind. They wrote to the president of the CRCN to accept their church and membership of Kwajji charge as a whole. The dissidents seized all church property, or what was left of the items in the stores was looted.
In light of this rebellion and the fact that the rebels did not want a peaceful settlement, UMCN HQs took the matter to court. Court intervened and settled that those wishing to pull out of UMCN must do so individually without usurping any church property. That all church property be returned and accounted for. The rebellion failed.
Several reasons accounted for the failure of this rebellion.
The rebelling ring leaders could not convince the entire charge elders to go along with them. Ayuba Name a prominent founding member had died the previous year in 1985. Barnabas Beko as well had his personal problems with the church and was on suspension. That left Baba Yakubu Tolenyashong now an old man but the pioneer of Kwajji church. He refused to follow the agitators reasoning simply that he could not see or participate in the destruction or mortgage of this house of the Lord that he had spent most of his life with his bitter sweat building it. Many followed him because he was a father figure.
The rebels thought it was simple to convert from the UMCN to the CRCN. What they did not contend with was that CRCN and UMCN were all part of the SUM of past and earlier on who are one even now under the umbrella of TEKAN.
Members of TEKAN could not allow such matters to pass haphazardly. The president of CRCN on receiving the letter from the Inusa Sameka group, most immediately consulted the UMCN hierarchy. He declared not to encourage any such recklessness to hamper the wider church unity. He asked that all church property must be returned when reconciliation failed with the dissidents still insisting on joining his church.
When it was evident that the rebels were merely trying to cover up their ills of the embezzlement audit so many church members across the charge fell out, u-turned and abandoned the few kingpins led by Ode Ladan and Inusa Sameka.
So it came to pass that the UMCN church in Pupule hqs of Kwajji charge was left intact and the properties looted were recovered by court order and with the urging of the CRCN president. By and by Inusa Sameka had managed to drag some of his kinsmen of the Mika people in a few villages with him while Oded Ladan and Obidah Dokada raised the CRCN church in Pupule virtually with only their immediate families.
Some villages in Mika now had CRCN churches in them along with UMCN churches. In the Manang or Pugong areas and Bamga members refused to go with the rebellion and stayed with the overwhelming UMCN church majority. Barnabas Beko also left with the dissidents but on a second thought rejoined the UMCN where he stayed to his death.
XII
KWAJJI CHARGE PROMOTION TO YORO CENTRAL DISTRICT -1988-91
God’s words continued to grow with all the challenges and set backs. UMCN moved on as if nothing had happed. The schism became a side talk and analytical matters to mull on within the church membership. Whether these analyses were significant and the crisis was in consideration, it would not be immediately clear at that time.
However, the year 1988 was one that became another landmark for Kwajji charge. That year brought some major reorganization in the UMCN.
On December 18th 1988, an area within Mumuye land was carved out among others and designated Yorro Central District. The headquarters was placed in the main church in Pupule. This meant that Kwajji had been promoted to Yorro Central District. The area of this District reached out from Dandikulu in the east to Boboto and Gada Lacheke in the West. And from Bamga, in the North to Pantisawa it reached up to Mika in the South.
This was a complete envelope of the heart of the land of the Mumuye people the objective that Karl Kumm, Ira Mc Bride, Guinter, the Olsens and other early missionaries sought 100 years ago at the time.
All these years the word of God that was deemed to reach the present day in these lands; endured all challenges, bottle necks, sabotage, evil, hardship to individuals and anything negative that Satan could throw in to stop it. Later Developments in the Yorro central district came in 1991 when Yorro – west with hqs at Pantisawa was carved of the wider Yorro central but Kwajji charge and the remains the center and headquarters of what was left of Yorro central District of the UMCN southern conference. In the early 1990s as well, up to date; more charges have been weaned from the mother charge of Kwajji.
Charges created from Kwajji since 1975
Manang-1990, Boli sabo-, Manang Kopo - 1991, Danzang - 2015, Dila, Pantisawa, Gada- Lacheke, Mbamga, Boboto, Kajon.
Throughout the history of the church in Kwajji, none indigenes and especially civil and public servants posted here have played very significant roles alongside their hosts in developing the church. Remember it was one of such people Y. Y. Zambuk that rescued the church in the late 1960s. Others that came on service to Pupule and joined church membership were police officers, Irimiya Ankoma from Kwoi and Patrick Tagang all from Kaduna state. These were people that greatly encouraged the church elders. There has been a line of such public officers to date who continued to support the church. Some found the Kwajji area so accommodating that they settled here permanently with their families to continue communing with their fellow members. Prominent among them are DSP Josiah Andeyati rtd from Hong Adamawa state, ASP Almond Jalingo from Pola also Adamawa state. On the indigenous part there were such civil servants too that helped raise the church such as :- Markus Jabu, Zechariah Jabu, Ayuba Alkali, Bulus S. Manang, Stephen Linus, Emma And John Jolly Jauro and a host others. To this present day, Pupule being a prominent town now with so many government facilities still continue to supply the UMCN church with members. It should be noted that these new comers came from various protestant denominations such as LCCN, NKST, ECWA, and Baptist church.
The founding fathers from the first church in Kwajji have now all passed away Ayuba Name Abba- 1985, Yakubu Tolenyashong-2010 and Barnabas Beko-2012. However they have left behind their children and descendants whom they raised with the words of God. They with help of the ever increasing members of the church are even today actively maintaining and building of the church that their fathers faced all types trials and tribulations to establish. Prominent among the children of these founding fathers are:- Rev. Liatu J. Kane, Haruna Yakubu, past. Ishaku Yakubu, and Reuben Yakubu(from Yakubu family); Juliana Mathias, Ekanah Ayuba, Stanley Ayuba(from Ayuba family); and Maxwell Barnabas(from Barnabas family).
XIII
BENEFITS OF S.U.M./U.M.C.N. ENTRY INTO KWAJJI/MUMUYELAND
When British Colonial government came into the area of Mumuye land in 1901 they found the following scenery. Mumuye land a hilly terrain, was wedged between two Moslem emirates of Adamawa and Muri. The Mumuye people so far un-conquered were under siege. Horsemen and bounty hunters would raid the Mumuye land to capture slaves or try to seize property or ultimately conquer it. When the British came all these atrocities stopped.
However the British brought INDIRECT RULE which still placed the Mumuye land politically under Moslem and Fulani rule by the two emirates of Muri and Adamawa. As a result the Mumuye who resisted all foreign intervention into their society remained neglected and hostile. The Juju cult was the rule of law in the Mumuye society of then. Young men were encouraged to kill any stranger they came across in what the British later called head hunting. This was a self defense mechanism by the people to keep the land on war footing or a state of emergency sort of. The cultists however meted out a lot of human rights abuses against women and men found wanting. No one had an alternative to this rule as the British only come to collect taxes and simply ignored the land as CLOSED TERRITORY of uncivilized untamable people. The Emirate administration also went along with this policy since the Mumuye were hostile to them too. But when SUM brought Christianity to Zing 1932, Lankaviri 1940, and later Kwajji 1949 in the heart of Mumuye area, all these webs of evil and backwardness began to unravel. When Christianity came to Kwajji and was accepted by the pioneers like Yakubu, Ayuba and Barnabas et al, it became clear that:-
There was an alternate to the darkness that Juju entailed with light brought by Jesus Christ.
People were now being aware of the civil society outside their land with all the opportunities it brought for advancement.
Literacy was brought to the Kwajji people and in no time members were being able to read and write.
The mission school gave chances to members’ children to get higher education that was being denied to them. Indeed one such child (Sale Yakubu) from Kwajji was admitted to Government college (now Barewa College) Zaria in 1965 from his SUM Primary school studies in Zing and Bambur.
Mission work drove the first major blow and the last nail in the coffin of Juju and harmful cultural practices which can barely be noticed today in Kwajji. There are indeed five churches of different denominations in Old Kwajji village today.
Christianity became a strong alternative to Islam which before the British arrived, had tried unsuccessfully to conquer by force the people of Kwajji and Mumuye. No one could have predicted what would result now had they succeeded.
SUM church in Kwajji became a trail blazer for the Roman Catholics and other Christian sects who came later and took advantage of the S.U.M. groundwork, disposition and ideas to establish themselves too. This could be considered to be of general good to Christianity and society since they also brought God’s words and education which was a civilizing factor to the general advantage of Mumuye land and its people.

Lessons to be learnt by UMCN church today.
The benefits noted above, though not detailed, can not be overemphasized. However there are lessons to be learnt from the difficulties that the SUM church and later UMCN church in Pupule went through in its evolution up till today.
The identity of the first components of the SUM mission organizations such as EUB (America), EUB (British), EUB Germany etc. served as a source of dichotomy which led to neglect of the church in Kwajji in the early days. This problem still bedevils the wider UMCN church today.
Lack of clergy and trained leadership especially in the 1960’s almost destroyed the church.
Issues relating to power struggle and the quest for position in the church system as those advanced by the dissidents who broke to the CRCN, clearly Centered on the pursuit of material wealth and not genuine church work to spread God’s words.
Ironically some of the grievances brought out by the dissidents were more or less issues to be looked into even today. What they raised about sectionalism, nepotism, group neglect etc. bedeviled the SUM/UMCN church throughout its history up till now. Zing and Mumuye members tried to break away on several occasions on this reason. This does not happen at the higher church echelon alone. Even at charge level a small unit of this nature, such issues still come up in a micro scale sort of.
Members & leaders have a tendency to quarrel among themselves either on personality or other trivial reasons that fall contrary to the principles of unity and brotherliness in the Christian faith. This habit nearly killed this particular church in Pupule in the late 1960s and may be an ill to watch out for even today.
Therefore as a matter of importance and even urgency, church administration should consider the following:-
Church should go back to the true meaning of Methodists and why they are unique in that aspect of church administration. Recently EWTN a Catholic media organization stated that the Methodists were among the only few Christian sects that are keeping to the principles of the earliest church of Christ and its teachings are untainted.
The church should keep close to what the book of Discipline gives guidance to.
The center of church resolve must be directed towards evangelism (saving souls) and establishing infrastructure for the improvement of social and moral standards of its members.
Church administration should steer clear and rid itself of the virus of corruption that has become endemic in the wider secular society of Nigeria.
Church should never borrow the administrative tendency of governments at various levels in Nigeria today which centers on the looting of Public wealth by individuals and leaving no physical developments that benefits the general public.
Leaders and members must unite in  Christ, love and be understanding to each other and keep the spirit of being one flock with Jesus Christ as our Lord, shepherd and savior.

APPENDIX

Clergy that led Kwajji charge. (Rev./Pastors)
Jonah Bubajoda Mafindi – 1975 - ?  
Linus Kwashombo – 1981-83
Yohana Donso – 1984-1986
Denis Gilenya – 1987-88
Ishaku Vobeyere – 1989-91
Dimas Dauda – 1992-94
Inusa Maigandi – 1995-97
Kalbeth B. Yugorobi – 1998-1999
Jonah Ntobivoh – 2000-2002
Elam Vassalam – 2002-2004
Ishaya Lejinti – 2005-2007
Ayuba Nakwado – 2008-2010
John Kemiya – 2011-2012
Salamatu Yaro – 2012-15
James B Vocks – 2015- 16
John E. Lantoya – 2016- 18

Liatu J. Kane -  2018 - 2021

Isaac Philip  Dakuru - 2021 - 2022
Men and women of the clergy called to god’s work from Kwajji charge.
Linus Kwashombo-1978.
Jonah Ntobivoh                -           1988
Liatu J. Jane                       -           1995
Ibrahim Linus        -                   Dec/2008
Ishaku Yakubu      -        2012
Sampling progress:-
Budget 1998-N282, 000
Budget 2002-N1m
Budget 2016      -N2.7m
Budget 2017      -N5.3m

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1-The Yorro People-H.Y Tolenyashong 2001
2-Church History UMCN Muri-Marubitoba  et al
3-Tarihi UMCN Muri-Peter Marubitoba 1982
4-Adamawa Past and Present-A.H.M. Kirk-Greene 1958
5-Tribes of Northern Nigeria-C.K Meek 1931
6-Official Memos NNAK-Kaduna archives.
7-Mumuye Socialization-Jacob Kane et al 1992
8-Tribes of Muri and Bauchi provinces  -Temple and Temple 1919.
9-EWTN Media Birmingham, Alabama.- Fr. Mitch Pacua, Catholic org. USA 2016
10-The travails of a pioneer- biography of Yakubu Tolenyashong -H.Y Tolenyashong, 2010.